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Iglesia ni Cristo

Iglesia ni Cristo is a Christian religion founded by a Filipino Felix Y. Manalo in Manila and was registered with the Philippine government as a church on July 27, 1914.

Eduardo V. Manalo, a grandson of the church’s founder, is its current executive minister.

The church claims they are in over 100 countries all over the world. Locally, they have 2,251,941 members, according to the latest data from the National Statistics Office.

The INC wields political clout by practicing bloc voting during national and local elections. INC members are given a few days before election day a sample ballot with the names of candidates the Church leadership is endorsing. This could translate to 1.5 to 1.8 million votes in national elections which makes the church very powerful and influential.

But not all the presidential candidates the INC endorsed won. In the 1986 snap presidential election, Corazon Aquino won over incumbent Ferdinand Marcos, who was supported by the INC. In 1992, Fidel V. Ramos, who won as president, did not get the endorsement of the INC who supported Marcos crony Eduardo M. Cojuangco Jr..

Four of the presidential candidates the INC has endorsed eventually won. They are: Joseph Estrada in the 1988 elections, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in the 2004 elections, Benigno Aquino III in the 2010 elections, and sitting president Rodrigo Duterte.

It is widely alleged that the Church leadership recommends to the President INC members for positions in government especially in the judiciary, Commission on Elections commissioner, and Bureau of Customs.

In 2015, a controversy broke out among the Iglesia ni Cristo when it was revealed that the Manalo clan was at odds over the church’s management of its finances which led to the church expelling Eduardo’s mother and his siblings Angelo, Marco Eraño, and Lolita.

The controversy allegedly stemmed from the church’s construction of the P7.8-billion ($200 million) Philippine Arena, a 50,000-seater enclosed arena located in the INC’s 50-hectare Ciudad de Victoria property located 24.5 kms northeast of the capital Manila.

Aside from this commercial building, the INC also owns the hospitals New Era General Hospital and Eraño Manalo Medical Center Incorporated and the school New Era University.